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Help please! My first M51


cloudbuster

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Hi All:hello2:

went up to failand last night, determined to finally get my first M51 whirlpool galaxy image....without go-to! :iamwithstupid:had to wait until about 2am, for the moon to go down. I admit its an awfull pic, but at least i now know where M51 is!!!!

cheers

Bob:icon_salut:

Orion 150 6"

Canon 300d

800 asa

8 subs between 1 & 3 minutes

no darks or flats

stacked in registax

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Well you certainly found it, Bob, well done!

When you stacked this image in Registax, you missed out a tiny procedure - once you have finished the stack and perhaps done some wavelet and other adjustments you will only be working on a small square of the image. Click on 'Do All' when you have finished so that your changes are carried out on the whole image - I suspect that is why there is a small square patch around the galaxy itself.

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Well done on finding it Bob... it's not a bad start. Registax isn't ideal for stacking this sort of image, try Deep Sky Stacker... I did what you did first off and used registax to stack it, and couldn't believe the difference changing the software made on the same data.

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One thing I have just noticed mate is that it is out of focus! notice how the stars have a hole in the middle. The way I focus is take some shorter exposures that show stars, then zoom in on the image in your photo browser in your camera and if you have perfectly formed stars...bingo focus...if not adjust and take another pick.

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Quote : "I admit its an awfull pic"

Hi Bob

I dont thinks its an awfull pic at all, you should see some of my first attempts, now they were awfull :D

Hope you dont mind me having a tweak with your image, this is what I came up with in Photoshop and Neatinage software.

Nice capture, keep at it :)

Greenkat

post-13805-133877450804_thumb.jpg

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Quote : "I admit its an awfull pic"

Hi Bob

I dont thinks its an awfull pic at all, you should see some of my first attempts, now they were awfull :D

Hope you dont mind me having a tweak with your image, this is what I came up with in Photoshop and Neatinage software.

Nice capture, keep at it :)

Greenkat

Hi Greenkat

Many thanks for tweaking my image....I have photoshop....please tell me how you tweaked it, cos its improved it no-end!

thanks

Bob

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Bob, The reason I asked about the problems with DSS, as Slipperysquid has said, it doesn't look like it's quite focused, and that will cause DSS problems with the stacking. Using DSS, load the frames, click check all, click register, Recommended settings, go through and take the options suggested, click ok a couple of times, and sit back. That's the easiest way of doing it at least to start with.

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Hello Bob

Glad you approved of the image tweak :)

All I did was stretch the histogram using the levels & curves features in photoshop.

Martinb from Stargazers lounge has a great tutorial on his website

Link : How to stretch the histogram using levels and curves

Once you get the hang of it its quite easy.

To remove the noise in the image, I used a program called Neatimage which is free

to download from here : Neat Image 32-bit /Win :: download

Hope that helps, if not, just ask some more :D

Greenkat

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Hiya again BOB, Well I should be at SSP from the wednesday, and I'm also a noob at imaging but would gladly pass on what i know about processing etc in easy to understand format and not all the astro jargon I get bombarded with :), I'll post up my m51 later when I get home from work which I managed to take while I was at SGL5! I'm using pretty much the same sort of set up as yourself, standard dual motors but using a skywatcher 200p. When I get a chance I'll drop you a PM with basic info about getting the most out of your image in photoshop etc. But it will only be the basics :D as that's all I know!

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Hi All

Just got home after another go at M51....or rather my second attempt. I think there's some improvement, thanks to all your great advice :D. Please let me know what you think.

cheers

bob

Orion 150 6"

Canon 300d

800 asa

10 subs 60 seconds

10 subs 90 seconds

10 subs 120 seconds

1 sub 150 seconds

darks as above

no flats

stacked in DSS

Processed in photoshop 6.......very badly:iamwithstupid:

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